India Pakistan High Commission Barricades Demolished Retaliation

INDIA SAID on Friday that the dismantling of temporary structures in the lane outside the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi came as a “proportionate action” in response to Pakistani authorities removing some structures outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that despite India’s request, Pakistani authorities removed the structures outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

“Some of the structures in front of the Indian High Commission in Pakistan were removed for the convenience of parking. We requested them not to do this. So after that happened, we took what might be called a proportionate action in response,” Jaiswal said.

“They had some temporary structures in the lane of the Pakistani High Commission here, so we removed them from there,” Jaiswal said.

According to sources in Delhi, the Pakistan authorities on Monday removed some barricades and structures that had been put up outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. These structures, including parking poles, had been put up to manage the queues of visitors and visa applicants, said sources.

On Wednesday, the Indian side carried out similar action outside the Pakistan High Commission in the Capital’s Chanakyapuri area. A section of unauthorised structures outside the High Commission was demolished. A JCB machine was deployed to remove the structures and barricades erected along the lane outside the compound, including those for queue management near the visa section, sources said.

The action left a trail of rubble outside the Mission, with broken metal railings and gates, twisted metal frames, roofing sheets, bricks and chunks of concrete and plaster strewn across the paved area. The visa section remained visible amid the debris.

This comes at a time when ties between India and Pakistan are at a low point after Operation Sindoor in May last year in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Both the High Commissions have been functioning at the level of Charge d’affaires for the last seven years, with reduced diplomatic strength and visa services mostly limited to pilgrims on both sides.

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 27 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting and writing explainers and analysis on foreign affairs for about 19 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He won the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award, 2023, for the second time for his reporting of the Oct 7 attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More